Electronic devices, such as wireless communication devices, are typically provided with messaging applications for composing, sending and receiving messages such as email (electronic mail), instant messages (IM), short message service (SMS) multimedia messaging service (MMS) and the like. Messages to be sent from an electronic device are typically addressed to one or more recipients (who may also be referred to as “addressees”) either automatically by the device, or manually by the electronic device user. When a new message is created in reply to a previous message, for example in response to a “reply” or “reply-all” command received in respect of a previously received message, the default recipients of the new message are typically selected from the set of participants identified in the previous message: the sender of the previous message is designated as a recipient of the new message, and (in the case of a “reply-all” command) any other recipients of the previous message, usually with the exception of the sender of the new message, are likewise designated as recipients of the new message.
When messages are sent to multiple participants in this manner, typical user behaviour is to expect that as new reply messages are generated and sent, all participants in the previous message will obtain a copy of the new message. A sender of a subsequent message, however, may on occasion wish to add or remove one or more recipients from a reply message.